Is it a red flag if the seller refuses to do a face to face transaction

[daveathall]

Originally Posted by rr-nyc

While your illustration may go both ways, its heavily weighted to one side, but not the side you're arguing. The seller is avoiding meeting in person, not the buyer. While I don't have statistics, there are plenty of stories in the news where crooks places an ad on craigslist. A buyer goes to meet the seller and is robbed of the cash. That is how it works. It's counter intuitive for a would-be thief to respond to a for sale ad and robbing the person of the item that they would in tern, have to sell for cash.

Your point abut a wallet is hardly the same as jewelry to watches because you can see the goods before stealing and target high value items such as gold and diamonds. A wallet is not the same at any level. First, you have no idea is there is any cash inside and second, the average person carries less than $50 - hardly a score. Best case it may be a few hundred bucks. But, if a guy is carrying enough cash to buy a Rolex, like in this scenario, who's the easy target here? A watch is insurable. Cash is not. The potential victim in this thread is the OP.

I disagree, all your assumptions are of your opinion only (my opinion differs) and of statistics you gathered through reading "plenty of stories in the news." I too have read differing reports from different newspapers from a different country than yours that I do not present as factual evidence. I did point out that my illustration could be worked both ways. I do agree it was weighted in favour of the seller, it would have made no sense when answering the original post otherwise, only you chose to turn it around for some reason. I do however acknowledge, that from you writings above, you may have a larger insight into the criminal world than I, in which case I concede to your greater knowledge on the subject and withdraw from our engagement.

Originally Posted by rr-nyc

But, if a guy is carrying enough cash to buy a Rolex, like in this scenario, who's the easy target here? A watch is insurable. Cash is not. The potential victim in this thread is the OP.

You seem to forget that in "this scenario"(from the op) that it was the seller that did not want the face to face, it was the original poster who wanted to meet (the one with the cash).